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IND vs ENG T20Is: 6 key players to watch | 6 key players to watch out for in the anticipated India vs England 2021 T20I series
Proving a majority of the cricket fans wrong, England started their tour of India with a bang by defeating the Indian team in the first Test in Chennai. But, unfortunately things got worse for them as the series progressed and India clinched the series by winning the rest three Tests comfortably.
Now, it’s time for some white-ball cricket as both of these great LOI sides are going to play a 5-match T20I series against each other. Several fresh faces are included in the squads of both the teams, which indicates that there will be some experiments prior to the T20 world cup. In this article, I am going to mention six players to watch out for in this series. Here we go.
Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant has all the abilities in the world to be a beast in the shortest format of the game, but somehow hasn’t been able to replicate his IPL success in international stage so far.
But, after performing brilliantly in the Australian tour, his confidence has gone up to a new level. He has shown a great sense of “match awareness” and played some gem knocks recently in Test cricket. His belief on his abilities is quite visible. In the absence of Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey, Pant is set to make his T20I return in the series against England. Looking at the kind of form he is in and the amount of confidence and self-belief he has right now, I really feel he will express himself to the utmost extent on the field this time and score some really crucial runs for India.
Dawid Malan
The number-one ranked T20I batsman Dawid Malan is going to play against India for the very first time in his career.
Malan has been fabulous right from his debut. We have seen him stabilizing the innings superbly, coming after the fall of an early wicket several times in the recent T20Is played by the English team. In the most recent T20I series of England against South Africa, he smashed 173 runs at a splendid average of 86.50 and a brilliant strike rate of 161.68.
Overall, he has 5 centuries to his name in T20 cricket. He can hold one end and also has the ability to accelerate when he gets set. The way he paces his innings is brilliant. So, the English batting unit will definitely rely on its “MR. Consistent” to give a tough challenge to the Indian bowlers.
T Natarajan
He went to Australia as a net bowler, but ended up the tour as one of the biggest positives for India in recent times. Natarajan’s journey has been such an inspirational one so far. He impressed every one of us with his bowling skills in the death overs, particularly his ability to bowl yorkers consistently, as well as accurately.
In the 3 T20Is he played in Australia, Natarajan grabbed 6 wickets and had a phenomenal economy of 6.92. Now, he is going to face one of the best batting units in white-ball cricket. So, the challenge will be bigger. In the absence of Bumrah, the pressure on Natarajan at the death overs will be huge as well. I trust his skills as he has delivered in Australia in the absence of Bumrah. So, I expect good returns from him in this series and he will play a key role in keeping the English batsmen quiet.
Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal is the trump card of Indian bowling in white-ball cricket. Even in the last T20I series against Australia, he came as a concussion substitute for Ravindra Jadeja and played a key role in the victory of the Indian team in the first T20I by picking three crucial wickets. Chahal has picked 9 wickets from 6 T20I games against England at an economy of 7.38 (much better than his career economy). Also, his best figures of 6-25 came against the English team in the home series back in 2017.
We all know that Chahal is a very intelligent bowler and has the ability to bamboozle the batsmen with his minute variations. The Indian team will heavily rely on Chahal to pick wickets at crucial moments and his success rate will definitely play a key role in India’s overall performance with the ball in this series.
Jos Buttler
If you ask me who the biggest match-winner is in the current English side, my answer will be Jos Buttler.
The exploits of Buttler in white-ball cricket is known to everyone. Since Buttler has been given the chance to open the batting continuously from 2018, he has scored 482 runs from 13 innings at a very impressive average of 43.81 and a terrific SR of 155.98. So, it is evident that he has been enjoying his new role as an opener in T20Is.
His job will be to provide a blistering start on which the middle order and lower middle order batsmen can capitalize on. If he gets set, he can dominate the Indian spinners by unsettling them with his shots all around the park, especially the sweeps and reverse sweeps. So, India should look to get Jos Buttler’s wicket as quickly as possible.
Hardik Pandya
The performance of the Indian batting unit in the death overs depends largely on the performance of Hardik Pandya.
He smashed bowlers like Jofra Archer, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje etc with ease in the IPL last year and carried his fabulous form into the Australian tour as well. He scored 210 runs at a bradmanesque average of 105 and a superb SR of 114.75 in the ODI series against Australia and was the man of the series in the T20I series that followed. Since IPL 2020, Hardik has scored 359 runs at an impressive average of 35.9 and a magnificent SR of 173.42 in T20 cricket.
It is quite evident from these facts that he has been in fabulous touch for quite a while now; has showed his calmness and maturity during pressure situations and I believe he will definitely play a crucial role in team India’s success in this t20I series.
So, these are my six players to watch out for in the upcoming T20I series between India and England. Have your say!
Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today.
